Fu₵# around and find out. That’s what some people seem to think the Observational Method is. Just go ahead and see how it works out and you can fix it later if it doesn’t go as planned. Go with the flow.
That’s not it at all. It’s not like the GPS in your car. You know, you set it to your destination, it tells you to turn, you miss your turn, and it recalculates a new route for you. No big deal.
That is not the Observational Method.
With the Observational Method, you plot out all the reasonably foreseeable outcomes (i.e., ways something can go wrong), you come up with a remedy for each of those potential outcomes. The remedies have to be achievable. You can’t build a million-ton buttress when your dam is in imminent danger of failing. Next, you proceed with the outcome that is deemed most likely. You monitor to see if your adopted outcome is being achieved. If it isn’t, you implement one of the remedies you have already engineered.
Please leave the fu₵# around and find out approach to driving with your GPS guidance.
And remember, only dead fish go with the flow.